A sincere, if at times rambling, re-creation of a spiritual “talking cure” via social media.
A comedian shares the Facebook conversations he had with a casual acquaintance after she contacted him about her impending divorce.
Shoemaker, a Los Angeles–based comedian known for his baritone-voiced character The Lovemaster, received a private Facebook message from Leah De Luca, whom he’d met a handful of times when she and her husband, Matt, attended his comedy shows in Philadelphia, his hometown. Leah wanted Shoemaker to know that she and Matt were divorcing after 30 years of marriage, that “from what I see from your life on Facebook, you seem like a compassionate man.” Upon reading this, Shoemaker—happily remarried but still struggling with his own divorce—replied to Leah, and a flurry of messages began. Shoemaker related the pain of his ex’s false accusations of child molestation as well as his own bleak childhood, which included actual molestation and “absent, unstable and baffling parents.” Leah touched on Matt’s emotional abuse during their marriage yet also the sadness she felt when he cut off communication during divorce proceedings. They also discussed the natures of forgiveness and acceptance and of taking responsibility for one’s own life. After about a year of such dialogue, Leah found new love, thanks to Shoemaker’s help, and both moved on to new phases of life. In his foreword, Shoemaker acknowledges that while there “may be fabrications” within his narrative—largely set up like an epistolary novel that replicates the Facebook messages—this is “irrelevant because it is all rooted in universal truth.” Indeed, the encouragement and advice to be mined from these missives may be helpful to anyone dealing with divorce or any other life crisis. While Shoemaker’s support of Leah was admirable, his own effusive, sometimes digressive self-expressions also dominated the text. In fact, the narrative could have used a bit more “mastering” of its own to further refine and develop the rather touching story of a friendship forged on Facebook.
A sincere, if at times rambling, re-creation of a spiritual “talking cure” via social media.Pub Date: June 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-1460244586
Page Count: 248
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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